Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 129 



he grew up he would be helpful to his people and brave in battle. 

 They would ask that he live a long useful life and be a leader among 

 the people, kind to the old, and have much to show for his efforts. 

 One would ask that a girl be industrious and good to her people so that 

 she would sometime have a happy home with a good hunter and 

 warrior as her husband. 



Prior to receiving a name, children occupied a marginal position 

 between the spirit world and the mother's household. Should they 

 die unnamed, they were wrapped and placed without ceremony in a 

 tree with other unnamed children. From there the spirit left the body 

 and returned to the Baby Hill or other place from whence it had come, 

 while the body was thought to be consumed by Sun and his sister, 

 cannibals of the upper world. Only rarely did an individual "know" 

 the hUl or place to which a child returned; this information usually 

 was revealed to the child years later during fasting. 



Birth and naming made the child a member of the mother's house- 

 hold and clan while additional transitional rites between birth and the 

 attainment of adulthood were the means of establishing new sets of 

 relationships, some of which were with people outside of the village 

 and tribe. The naming ceremony also introduced the child to the 

 people of the father's clan. The child's position was then complete 

 as far as the immediate parental clan groups were concerned. It was 

 further believed that one's "real" person was not revealed until 

 fasting had been undertaken seriously. Then one's spiritual father 

 would come to him and enumerate the things the young man should 

 undertake to help his people. 



TRAINING AND CEREMONIAL PARTICIPATION 



The early training of a Hidatsa child was largely entrusted to the 

 mother, with assistance from the other females of the lodge. When 

 the mother was ill or died during childbirth, it was not uncommon to 

 give the child to another woman to care for and to adopt. At an early 

 age, boys began to receive training dijBferent from that of girls. Boys 

 were trained in games of hunting and warfare by the older men, 

 especially the grandfathers, of the lodge, or by the younger men of the 

 lodge who were classified as "older brothers." The father's role, 

 particularly as far as it concerned his first son, was likely to be one of 

 aloofness and distance if living in the wife's lodge. He was expected to 

 hunt for the household and help protect the village from its enemies. 

 Thus his attention was directed toward other matters. He was 

 expected to show respect for his son by neither scolding nor punishing 

 him. When a child was old enough to walk, he was usually in constant 

 company with the other children of the lodge and their closest rela- 

 tives of related households. An older brother would look after a 



